Banning the Big Six

[Spatula]

I would say keep weapons with plusses, at least. And maybe armor, but honestly AC ceases to really matter much past the mid-levels, unless you're seriously optimizing for it. Those types of items were traditionally where non-spellcasters got their combat power from.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Well, as a reminder: "They're still at 2nd level, so I haven't decided whether I'll be giving them level-up bonuses to BAB, Damage, AC, abilities, etc. or if I'll just scale monster threats down."

With some systems, you really can just scale down the opposition. D&D 3.x is not one of those. So yeah, I recommend sticking with your first instinct.

I blogged about my experience with loot-lite D&D as a player, and how to do it without messing with the game. So good gaming!

 

[kitcik]

The "big six." LMAO.

I thought the post was going to be "I am banning wizard, druid, cleric, artificer, beguiler, whatever"

Instead, he's nerfing non-casters. Oh well.

I guess VoP opens up as a possibility...

 

[xigbar]

Check your PM box.

I like where this is goin'.

 

[emoplato]

Well, as a reminder: "They're still at 2nd level, so I haven't decided whether I'll be giving them level-up bonuses to BAB, Damage, AC, abilities, etc. or if I'll just scale monster threats down."

So I'm not really worried about this. I'm thinking I may increase weapon damage dice as PCs level to keep some parity with the spellcasters.

I feel like Wizards laid out an approach to this at some point during 3.5, but I can't remember if it was in a book (UA?) or a web feature...

The amount of relative damage isn't the issue. An optimized ubercharger will often do more damage than a typical spell caster can as most of the charger's damage comes from guaranteed damage. Heck, if given enough attack he will slay a god if the opportunity shows itself. The issue is that many casters act as field disruptors, cleaners, and opportunity creators having an array of options that fighters can only specialize in while casters still have others. Now, I am no believer in casters are broken it is usually set up in a game both on the DM and PC side to where decent casters are out of danger so they are allowed reign madness while the people that protect are in danger and mostly act as the walls. Also, on the DM side they obviously come in with caster fully readied against people and can control the setting to wear down the party to where they seem great. When in actuality they may very well be designed for the situation and not for adventuring.
As other people said don't take away the prized and necessary items of fighters. Instead try to set up some of training template mechanisms that can give them extra bonuses. While casters have either their time for studying or praying allow fighters to train and get more attributes to work with. I also wouldn't be above giving templates that require certain attributes, class features, skill ranks, and feats that they can give some options depending on their orientation. Of course this may be done with lots of trial and error but I think it would be a good start, if you want to take a higher power approach.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I guess the big question is "What is going to stop my players from all playing a caster?" Especially if you are going to ban armor as well. I personally think you should approach your party out of character and get their opinions on this. They may think its a great idea and want to try it or may hate it and immediately rebel.

With that being said, I played a game where magic was cursed. All full casters ran the risk of going insane the more and more magic they used. It made for an interesting game where we had to conserve our resources carefully. However, we alll knew that magic was cursed going into the game and I think that helped.

 

[Dandu]

With that being said, I played a game where magic was cursed. All full casters ran the risk of going insane the more and more magic they used. It made for an interesting game where we had to conserve our resources carefully. However, we alll knew that magic was cursed going into the game and I think that helped.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xCdNPltksc]Sanity is for the Weak - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Dandu]

I like where this is goin'.

Check your pms.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Check your pms.

Need Midol?

 

[Dandu]

need midol?

Blood for the Blood God!